Outward Appearances

Outward Appearances

It can be tempting to become obsessed with outward appearances; the way others perceive us and our work.

You can spend your time upholding an image; an image of your community, of your operations, of your events. Instagram, among other social media platforms, is a wonderful way to keep up appearances.

And keeping up appearances is fine if all you care about is what people think of you; if you want to do the bare minimum; if you only want people to think you’re a great organization or a fantastic leader. But along with keeping up these appearances comes a lot of anxiety. It’s the anxiety of being a fraud, of being found out, of feeling lazy, or feeling like you have to always be on your “A game.”

You think, “If I don’t do this, the members won’t sign up and the investors will stop investing, and the rent won’t get paid.”

There’s only one way I know of to quell the anxiety.

Work. Work every day, work a little more than you have to. See what’s working and do it more and more. Build a routine around what’s working; make it a habit.

What if you committed to create three valuable connections for one of your members every single day? What if you committed to improving one feature of your space every single day? What if you reached out to two new event partners every day?

I’m no expert on predicting the future, but I’ll bet that not only will you forget about the anxiety, you’ll be surprised at how easy things have become.

Ryan Chatterton

Ryan is the founder of Coworking Insights, a coworking media platform focused on delivering unique and in-depth insights for coworking founders and their teams. He’s the Marketing Director at Habu, a quickly growing coworking management platform that is simple, fast, and intuitive for managing recurring billing, bookings, and other admin tasks. Formerly with Impact Hub and PARISOMA, Ryan now has over 4 years of combined experience in a variety of roles in the coworking industry, including marketing, events, operations, sales, software, and partnerships. He’s a digital nomad and a lover of wine and tacos. Follow Ryan's personal blog at https://ryanchatterton.com.